It's only the beganing
by DannieGirl
Summary: Set after the seson finale, how is Logan going to find out about Max, and where does Liedecker fit in to it all?
1. Chapter one

It's only the beginning

This is the first fan-fic that I have ever posted, so be gentle with me.

Reviews and E-mail welcome, but no or little flames please, they can really hurt!

I don't own any of the characters in Dark Angel, ask James Cameron, and the people at Fox, any way, here we go!

It had been only a month since the botched attempt at destroying Mantacore, and Donald Liedecker hadn't had a drink since the night he saw Max die in Logan Cale's arms.

' Oh Max, I should have seen that you and your siblings weren't meant to be killers, I gave you and the other X-5's the one thing that I had lost over my years in the military, I gave you souls.' He thought to himself, as he stared at the ceiling above his bed.

Over the past month Logan had learned to put up with Liedecker, h*ll he had the man staying in his guest room for heaven sakes.

It had been strange learning to trust this man that had tracked and slowly captured Max's siblings, the one man that had frightened her, until those last few days, when Renfro had put a price on his head as well as all of the X-5's still on the run.

Jondy had shown up almost as soon as they had gotten back to his penthouse, she had some how known that Max was gone, and she had taken Syl and Krit with her when she had left a few days ago, they were planning to connect with Tinga's husband and little boy in Mexico, they were going to send word of Jondy's baby when it came.

It had been hard to tell Original Cindy, Herbal, and Sketchy about Max, but as usual, Bling had been there to help through that.

Then there was Liedecker, he had started his own crusade against Mantacore, giving Logan all of the information he had on the facility and most importantly giving him the info, '411' as Original Cindy put it, on Renfro.

Renfro, or Madame X, just seemed to appear out of nowhere, and took over Mantacore when the board decided that Liedecker was too personally involved with the X-5s, there was no information on her from before the Pulse, it seemed she was one of those that had taken advantage of it to start a new life for herself.

Liedecker had given Logan the codes to tap into the surveillance system at Mantacore, and Renfro, or who ever was in charge out there, hadn't noticed that all of the Video feeds were being monitored, of course that wasn't entirely true, Logan hadn't been able to even look at any of it since Max had died, but his computer was storing anything on the X-5's, mostly stuff on Brin and Zach.

Mantacore was once again working like a well oiled machine, now that they had Max back, and Renfro figured that through Max they could get information on the other X-5's , and maybe even Liedecker and Eyes Only, who ever he or she was.

"How is our little Max today?" Renfro asked Brin, as the younger woman came into her office.

"She has resisted all forms of interrogation, even the drugs don't seem to be working." Brin reported, as she stood at attention.

"Show her again what her precious Zach did for her, then show her the surgery that saved her life, then tell her we can take it all back as quickly as we gave it to her." said Renfro, malice in her voice.

"I have already taken the liberty of doing that Ma'am, it had no effect on X5-975." 

"Interesting, if she hasn't broken in a few days, terminate her." 

"Yes Ma'am." said Brin.

"Dismissed solder." said Renfro, and Brin turned on her heal and left the office, "I will find you Liedecker and this Eye's only person who warned the others, and you will pay for going against me." she said, as she looked at the monitor, and smiled , in the corner where it should have said Max, it said Zach.

Renfro had figured that some how Liedecker had tapped into the surveillance system, but he couldn't watch all of the screens all of the time, so she had designated Max as Zach, so that unless he happened to see Brin with Max he wouldn't even know she was alive.

"Liedecker, we need to talk." said Logan, as he stood outside the door to his guest room.

"What do you want Cale?" Liedecker asked through the closed door.

"I need to look at surveillance footage from this past month, and I could use another set of eyes to help, that and the fact that you might pick-up on some thing I'd miss, being a civilian." said Logan.

"I'll be there in a few minutes." said Liedecker, as he threw some cold water on his face.

Liedecker had hardly been out of that room since they had gotten back, and he hadn't left the penthouse in the whole month since he had lost his most precious 'kids' back to Mantacore, lost them to her, Original had started calling her The She Demon.

It amazed 'Decker that Max had so many people like Logan and Cindy, who if they had to, willing to put their lives on the line for her, and her siblings. He had never seen loyalty like it in most of the civilian population, but it made him happy to know that 'his' little Maxie had had that in her life after the escape.

Cindy and Logan had filled him in on Max's early life, after the escape, but before the Pulse. They had told him about the foster home where she had been when the Pulse had occurred, the abuse she had had to suffer through, and the seizures that would wrack her body if she didn't have the triptaphan that her body didn't produce on it's own.

His heart ached, knowing that Max and the others had been through so much just to be free, free of Mantacore, free of him.

End of part one.

Hope you like this so far, review it, and let me know what you think. 


	2. chapter 2

Chapter Two

Sorry this took me so long, had another story going that I posted, check it out if you like Buffy the Vampire slayer, or Angel, or Poltergeist: the Legacy, or Highlander, it is in the cross over section.

Thanks for all of the great reviews and the help with spelling and Max's ID number.

I am adding a new character, a Dr. Thorp as a subordinate of Refro's, I thought she needed a professional other then Brin.

Here we go.

#####

The last thing Max really remembered from the night she should have died, was seeing herself, like she had been when she was younger, when she and the other X5's had escaped, but now all of the years that she had been free seemed like just a dream.

'Stay focused Max, if you don't you might give the others away, and get Logan killed.' Max thought to herself.

Logan, the best part of her life outside of this h*ll, she had to protect him no matter what, if she didn't, Eye's Only would be gone, and so would the way to safely warn the others about Renfro.

#####

As Logan looked at the log of the stored data, he made a mental note that Brin was spending an a good amount of her time with Zach.

'Probably for the best, maybe he can get past the programming that the She Demon had implanted into Brin.' he thought to himself, as Lydecker pulled a chair up to the desk.

"What have you got Logan?" he asked.

"It's mostly Brin and Zach, I think Renfro is trying to brainwash Zach like she did Brin, doubt it will work, I hope Zach gives her as hard of a time as he has me in the past." Logan explained, as he started the first file running.

"Zach always was a handful, even more stubborn then me, but it has helped to keep him and the others safe over the years." Lydecker said, " Once when they were out training, he was hurt, hurt pretty badly, but rather than give himself up, and expose the others for capture, he stuck it out, we almost lost him then, Max was so made at him about that, she didn't talk to him for over a week."

"Sounds like those two." Said Logan, "They were closer then the others weren't they?"

"They were born just minutes apart, the closest of any of them even closer then Ben and his sister, and they were twins."

"You don't have the same reactions to the others that you do to Max and Zach, why, did you help design their genetic make-up or some thing?"

"I guess you could say that, Max was almost my own child, so is Zach, they used my DNA, and that of my dead wife as a basis for both of them, so yes you could say that they mean more to me then the others."

"We'll figure out a way to get Zach out of there, we just have to wait for the right time."

"I know you loved Max, she was real hard not to love, when she was little, before the training started, she had a seizure, I sat by her bed side until she woke-up, I never told any of the people in charge, I had seen what they had done to the others that had had the seizures, from then on I always made sure that the dietitians turned a blind eye to the fact that Zach and Jondy would give Max their milk and turkey."

"I'll never forget her." Logan vowed, as he began running the first of the files that he had stored up.

#####

"X5-452, you are ordered to wake-up." Said Brin.

"Aw, Mom, just five more minutes." Max retorted.

"We have no mother or father X5-452, our parents are Manticore, we are here to serve them."

"I will never betray the others, you should know that better then anyone."

"X5-452 You will tell us where the other X5's are, or they you will be terminated."

"Bite me Brin, I've been dead once this year already, go ahead and kill me again." Max said

"There is no hope that the others will come back for you."

"Good, because then I'm sure that Renfro won't get to do to them what she did to Tinga and you." she retorted.

"Such a waste of a good solder, to have you die trying to protect those that are weaker then you."

"I thought that that was what we were suppose to do, or are we just here to make money for Renfro now?"

#####

"As you can see Dr. Renfro, the subject is too strong willed for any of the drugs to work, she has much more control then the other one, I believe X5-452 referred to her as Brin, we will have to use other means to get any information from her." Said Dr. Thorp.

"What do you suggest Dr. Thorp?" Asked Renfro.

"I suggest that we begin by depriving her of the triptophan that her body so desperately needs, once we let her become weakened by the seizures, then the drugs should work, then if that isn't enough, we begin the psychological interrogation, after all of that, if she still refuses, then you may as well let her die." Said Dr. Thorp.

"Excellent Dr. Thorp, I had no idea that she needed Triptophan, Lydecker must have made sure that stayed out of her records from her early life here, but now we will use it to our own advantage."

"Sir, X5-452 has been informed that she is to be terminated if she does not report on the whereabouts of the other X5's." Brin reported, via intercom..

"What was her reaction?" asked Renfro

"She told me to bite her Sir."

"That is our little Max, she is to be taken off of the triptophan, then we wait, dismissed solder."

"Yes, Sir." Said Brin, turning off the intercom.

#####

"Was this program running while we were on the mission?" Lydecker asked Logan.

"Yah, I had it routed to the van, I haven't looked at any of it since before we found Max." Logan explained.

"Call up the last footage of Max on file."

"Why, so we can watch her die all over again?"

"Just do it Logan, I have this feeling that we are missing some thing, they wouldn't use Brin to get to Zach, Renfro knows that that would not work with him."

"What are you getting at Lydecker?"

"If I'm right, Zach took her back in to get the personnel there to replace her heart, but they blew-up the storage locker for the cloned X5 organs, there was nothing left, unless Zach gave her his."

"You think that Zach cared about her that much?"

"No, I know that he did, the only fault with his plan was that he never told the rest of us, so it has taken us this long to figure it out."

"Then why are all of the sessions with Brin labeled as Brin and Zach?"

"Probably some sick joke on Renfro's part, she knows that I will stop at nothing to get either of them out, but she also knows that Max was always my favorite."

"This is the footage." Said Logan, as hit the enter key.

As they watched, the hours of footage, all Logan could think was that there was a chance that they could get her out.

As they caught up on the footage, they noticed Max start to have the seizures that accompanied the lack of triptophan in her system, and all either of them wanted to do was get her out.

"I'm going to contact the others, you work up a plan to get us in and out in one piece with Max, and the others." said Logan, as they finished.

"Should we let her friends know?" asked Lydecker, as he started formulating a plan in his head.

"Not until she is out of there, besides it is going to take the others a couple of days to get here."

Said Logan, as he put out a 911 to the other X5's pagers.

A few hours later, all of the others had called and said that they were on their way, except for Jondy, who was due any day.

######

'I can't give in to them, I can't let them know how weak I am' Max thought to herself, as another seizure hit her, ripping a whimper from her lips.

"It would appear that Dr. Thorp was right, she is getting weaker with every seizure, in a few more days you are to start re-administering the psychotropic." Renfro ordered Brin.

"Yes, Sir."

"Then you are to make sure that it works, if the drugs don't work, use what ever you have to, I want those other X5's found" 

"Yes Sir." Said Brin, as she left the office.

"My little Max, you will give-up Lydecker, Eyes Only, the other X5's, and Tinga's son, I am here to make sure of that." Said Renfro, as she looked at the monitor, as Max had another seizure.

#####

A few days after the 911 went out, Lydecker, Logan, Syl, and Krit were at Logan's penthouse discussing their plan to get Max out, when Cindy came by to check on Logan, and figured out what was going on.

"If you think you are going after my Boo without me you are crazy." Cindy told Logan and the others, as she began loading things into her backpack.

"Cindy, we know what were doing, we trained for this type of situation." Said Krit.

"I know, and so am I, back before the military was basically disbanded, I was an Airborne Ranger, I know all about these types of missions."

"Cindy, we might not all make it out." Said Lydecker.

"Yah, and I'm here to make sure that Max does make it out, I can carry her if I have to, besides, you'll need someone with who speaks Cail, Logan forgets that the rest of us don't need to use the big words." She said, "And you'll need some one who knows Military speak to tell you weather Lydecker is turning on us or not."

After a few more minutes Lydecker and Logan decided that Cindy could be useful, that and the fact that she was even more stubborn then Max when it came to her Boo.

The plan was for Krit and Syl, along with Cindy to sneak in using a long forgotten tunnel that had been put in for evacuation training when Max and the others had been kids.

Cindy was to poses as the nurse that was suppose to give Max the Psychotropic drugs meant to break her, instead, Cindy would be giving her a shot of triptophan.

Syl and Krit were to guard the entrance inside the complex to give Cindy and Max cover, once they had set explosive charges through out the Manticore complex. 

Lydecker was to cover the outside end of the tunnel giving the others cover fire if they needed it, and Logan was set to drive the getaway van.

Every thing went as planed, the explosives wiped out the whole complex, Max was shot as she was running to the van, not nearly as bad as the last time, but she was weak enough that Lydecker had to carry her to the van.

"It's not that bad, she'll be okay." Krit reassured the others once they got back to the penthouse.

Lydecker and Logan both breathed a sigh of relief, at Krit's news.

"Can we see her?" Asked Cindy.

"Sure, but only for a few minutes, she is still really weak, even with our ability to heal, it may take her weeks to recover." Krit explained, as he followed Cindy to Logan's room, followed by Syl.

"Are you going to tell Max?" Logan asked Lydecker.

"Tell her what, that she is genetically related to me, that Zach was her brother not only in arms, but in flesh and blood too, no I can't do that to her, not now, not with the guilt of Zach's death on her, she disserves better then that, no I'm going to leave, try and make a fresh start some place else, who knows, I may give what you do a try." Lydecker said winking at Logan.

"I have no idea what your talking about." 

"I know your Eyes Only, and you help wake people up to what's really going on in the world, not just the sugar coated mess they see on the news."

Lydecker was about to go start packing his few meager possessions when Cindy and the others came out of Logan's room.

"Lydecker, Max want's to talk to you." Cindy said, "I may not be like Max, but I could kick you butt if you hurt her."

"No more, that part of my life is over now." Lydecker said as he went to the bed room.

As he entered the room, Donald Lydecker had a flash of Max as she had been when she was little, when she had been ill, she had looked so vulnerable then, just like now.

He could hear her breathing, shallow, but steady, his little girl was alive, and here safe from Manticore.

"'Decker?" Max rasped.

"I'm here Maxie, your safe, they won't come after you ever again." He soothed, smoothing back her hair.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you, tell you what Max?"

"That You were my father, mine and Zach's."

"How?" Lydecker asked, as he sat down on the edge of the bed, and took one of Max's hands in his.

Her hand was smaller then he remembered, but it still fit in his perfectly, like when she had been small. 

"Brin told me, I think they were desperate to get me to give every one up to them, Renfro told Brin to tell me that if you would hunt down your own children, that you were capable of just about anything."

"I knew that you and Zach had some of my genetic material, Max I tried to keep you and Zach safe, even after you escaped, I never told them about you needing triptophan.

" Even after I knew where you both were, I kept it from all of them." He said.

"I know, Thank you for coming back for me." she said.

"I couldn't leave you in there, not after what happened with Zach, I already lost one of my children, and don't plan on loosing you any time soon."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure , you think Eyes Only might have a job for me?"

"I think that can be arranged."

"Speaking of Eyes Only, I had better let him in here to see you before he wears a hole in he floor." Said Lydecker, as he got up, but not before Max pulled him to her in a hug.

"There was one thing I always wanted to call you, even when you were chasing us." she said.

"Oh, what was that, a pain in the butt?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, Daddy." She said tightening the hug.

"Hay, take it easy on me, I'm an old man here, your going to break ribs with hugs like that."

"Sorry."

"It's okay, you get some sleep when Logan leaves, okay?"

"Yes Dad." Said Max., as Lydecker left to get Logan.

"We just got word from Tinga's husband, Jondy had a little boy, she named him Zach." Said Logan, as he headed for his room.

"That's great, how is Jondy doing?" Lydecker asked.

"Tinga's husband said that Jondy is fine, and they will be coming back up for a visit in a week or two." Said Syl.

"You don't have to hide any more, you can stay in the area, it might be better for the boys to stay here in the area anyway, there is a docter at the hospital here in town that knows about X5's, he's treated Logan, and Max trust him."  
"Then it's settled, I guess Max and I are going to have to help you find places to stay." Said Cindy.

"Hay, guys, come take a look at this." Said Krit, who had gone to chase Logan out, so Max could get some sleep.

The collected group of people from the living room went down the hall to find that Max and Logan had both fallen asleep in each others arms.

"Aw, how cute, I knew my Boo would get him eventually." Said Cindy.

"You and me both Cindy." Said Lydecker.

__

THE END? 


End file.
